The continued miniaturization in the electronic field gives rise to a need for self contained assembly and feeder units which are ready to mount into an existing work envelope for use with pick and place machinery and robotic work stations whenever and wherever reliable parts delivery is required. In particular, electronic component feeders which are intended for use in automatic pick and place or robotic assembly of integrated circuit boards and like electronic applications, must provide steady and dependable delivery of parts to a given work site. Furthermore, it is extremely important that the part be correctly oriented and strategically aligned so that they can properly interface with other systems including the pick and place machinery and like robotics to ensure that each part is where it should be when it should be and arrives oriented as it should be so that preset scheduling of an efficient production line can be maintained. It is for this reason that existing vibratory feeders were designed.
However, some of the major problems with existing vibratory feeders, are the frequent misorientation or misalignment of critical parts and the frequent and expensive downtime required to change dedicated vibratory feeder platforms when switching from the delivery of one type of circuit board component to a different type of component for continued assembly of the same or a different circuit board. The different or substitute components are usually of different sizes and shapes and the prior art dedicated platforms are generally made to accommodate only a limited quantity of sizes and shapes of component parts. Thus, the time lost to production includes both the manual switching of dedicated platforms as well as the programming adjustment of the X and Y coordinates of the automated pick and place or robotic machinery to properly locate and pick up the newly selected different component.
Accordingly, a serious need exists in industrial assembly lines and particularly those with integrated surface mounted electronic assembly applications for a new and improved parts delivery device which saves time and money while increasing productivity and enhances the reliability and dependability of such machines and enables them to contribute more to the overall efficiency of the assembly production line.
It has been found and will hereinafter appear in greater detail that the device of the present invention is directed not only solves the prior art problems but provides a reliability and precision heretofore unobtainable by similar prior art devices.